Sign In

Do You Remember Last Night?

There are many popular films these days that deal with memory loss, but one that has struck me as particularly interesting is 2009's 'The Hangover.' For those who are unfamiliar with the film, it follows four friends who party way too hard in Vegas who must use clues to piece together what happened during that night in order to find their friend who is missing.
This film portrays the humorous aspect of memory loss, but does not overlook the possible dangers that it can cause. It is easy to watch 'The Hangover' and laugh at the situations these men find themselves, ignoring the true danger of having absolutely no idea what you may have done the previous night. People often find themselves in jail cells after a long night of drinking, with very little memory of what had happened. This makes it extremely difficult to defend oneself or to cut a decent plea bargain, because you have very little credibility when it comes to having an accurate account of what really happened.
Please party responsibly.

I did my blog on something similar. State dependent learning, and used my example from Beerfest (which I'm sure you have seen if you enjoyed movies like The Hangover). Now I wonder, with the recent theories on drunken recall, if the boys were to get drunk again in the movie, to remember where the bachelor was, or why Stu had gotten married maybe, just maybe their day would have turned out better. (although being able to say you got punched by Mike Tyson is pretty sweet).

I think that for example drinking so much that you can not remember what happened the next day is very dangerous, because you make yourself very prone to suggestibility. Lets say you are blamed for doing something illegal the night before and everyone tells you that you did. Your are more likely to agree with them because you do not remember what you actually did. This is also an example of state dependent learning how could they possibly retrieve their memories?

Great blog and a good topic of discussion for college kids. "Blacking out" in today's world is often viewed as the funny and cool thing to do in social situations. This movie does display this aspect in a humorous way while shedding some light on the dangers of blacking out. Good article and "party responsibly" should be taken into account by all.

I think you make a really good point. When viewing others who may totally forget something, it might seem very humorous. However, when it happens to you, it is not so funny. Hearing stories from friends or seeing pictures of yourself the next day that you have no recollection of can be very frightening. Questions start popping into your head and you hope you didn't do anything too serious. Memory loss can also be very sad, looking at all the cases of Alzheimer's in today's world. Memory loss is definitely not a laughing matter.

It is important to be careful when drinking, as you mentioned, but you forget to talk about the fact that in the movie the people were rufied, which hopefully they would be able to use that to get out of any troubles with the law. However, it is also very important to be careful when going out to party and doing heavy drinking because it is easy to binge drink and end up forgetting the entire night. It may sound fun to go out with friends and then have them tell you all the funny things you did the next morning, but it goes to an extent before someone can get hurt.

I definitely agree that often times people lose sight of the severity of the situations they put themselves in. Sure it can seem funny when a friend gets belligerent and starts doing ridiculous things, but when they wake up in the morning not remembering a single thing, it's not exactly funny to them. Memory is not a subject to be taken lightly, its important to not take it for granted.

I agree with the comment above, people don't take into consideration the severity of their memory loss. You hear about people going out on the weekends and blacking out, not remembering what happened the night before. This type of situation can be very dangerous and people don't take it seriously enough. It shouldn't have to get that bad in order for someone to realize the consequences for it. Losing all recognition seems like one of the scariest things that could ever happen to me.

It has been awhile since I have seen this movie, but wasn't a mind altering drug involved than just consuming alcohol? Such as the "date rape" drug? Not that I am for binge drinking, but this movie showed a severe case of losing your memory, and natural inhibitions.

Its interesting that you chose an example of memory loss that has nothing to do with a mental condition at all. Blacking out from drinking is a very different situation than having Alzheimers or amnesia or something. With alcohol you can completely control how much you're ingesting, where as in most memory loss cases, the person has no control over whether or not it will happen. It's also not at all a permanent condition.